THE CRITIC-AL LIST
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Uninvited
Amusement
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The RIse OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Jim Carrey, John Cleese, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, William H. Macy, Cary Elwes, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins and Robin Wright Penn. Animation USA, 96 minutes.

It has been Mickey Moused, Muppetized, SCROOGED, Flintstoned, Mr Magooed and made into a musical. Now the world’s most familiar story, about the bitter miser given a chance for redemption when haunted by three ghosts on Christmas Eve, has been Disneyfied yet again.

Using 3D performance capture as obsessively championed by THE POLAR EXPRESS/BEOWULF director Robert Zemeckis. Some still feel the jury is out on this pioneering process - one that records actors’ moves and uses that movement to animate digital models. Often the effect can look deadeye disembodied, disconnecting empathy to the characters being portrayed. Up front I must admit that this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ traditional Christmas classic is one of the few versions that failed to move me by the Tiny Tim finale. But having said that Disney and Zemeckis must be applauded for translating the quintessential yuletide yarn with a technically dazzling visual dynamic that magnifies both its horror and humorous aspects. Plus it provides a real edginess to the obvious greetings card Victorian winter wonderland aesthetic. In his digital Ebenezer Scrooge guise Jim Carrey channels Wilfred Bramble in ‘Steptoe and Son’, while also giving vocal inflection to Scrooge’s young and teenage selves. Carrey also tackles the inventive ghosts of Christmas Past (a flame-faced mischievous candle), Present (a neat nod to the usual Zeus-like portrayals sitting atop seasonal food mountains) and Yet To Come (a scarily bony-fingered black shadow). Gary Oldman takes on Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and the frightening ghost of Jacob Marley. In a gift to the 3D wrapping, when the Marley doorknocker went ‘boo’ half the audience recoiled in shock! Colin Firth is Fred, Scrooge’s gregarious nephew, Robin Wright Penn both Belle, Scrooge’s only true love, and Fan, his deceased sister. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT star Bob Hoskins reunites with Zemeckis to play Old Fezziwig and rag and bone man Old Joe. It’s not all gloom and doom on the creepy way to Scrooge’s philanthropy, a journey that feels even more potent in the wake of the banking scandals of late. The flights across London rooftops are as magical as they are MARY POPPINS and THE SNOWMAN flavoured, while THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN future visions will delight genre nostalgia buffs. Adults with children will want to know that just as the going gets a little tough, glimmers of comedy or shimmers of delightful fantasy shine through to undercut the terrifying set-pieces. The perfect example:  the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come’s equine demons and the sparkling firework whiplashes that spur them on. All the 3D bells and whistles are present and correct joyously shuffling in-your-face screams, see-through floors, fast flights through snowy streets, expressionistic nightmare landscapes and much more with a confident flair.

With last minute appearances by Ignorance and Want hiding in the folds of Yet To Come’s billowing robes, and a surprising diatribe on religion at one point (Sunday shopping being the unusual platform), this all-encompassing 3D sugar plum isn’t your average A CHRISTMAS CAROL interpretation. Thanks goodness! ‘God bless us every one’.

Alan Jones

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